Thunderhead

Thunderhead is a legendary (1 supply) BIG attacker. He comes in swinging with 5 attack per turn and can simultaneously absorb 9 damage, nearly twice what he can deal! Of course he isn’t without some pretty big downsides:

Lifespan 3, a major drawback

Frontline

Requires 5 green like Xaetron, but more expensive in gold and a blue requirement

1 Supply

Lets take a look at some ways to think about the up and downsides of Thunderhead.

A big pro of this unit is that the 5 attack he generates doesn’t require a click, leaving him available to use that huge 10 hp. It’s important to make sure when you build him though, that 5 attack will make a difference and that you have the granularity to make good use of his absorb.

A big con of the unit is his Lifespan of 3, which on its own isn’t a huge deal breaker, but he is also only 1 supply. This makes him great for 3 turns and useless before or after. Due to the way the drawbacks are setup on him, timing is really crucial to make those 3 turns count.

Being Frontline can make another big difference in timing. It’s pretty likely that if your opponent can do 10 attack, he will likely wipe this guy out before he can do serious damage unless your opponent can easily absorb the 5 attack. It may be more efficient at times for your opponent to go after your other units or exploit granularity and deal with the 5 attack for 3 turns, knowing that you can’t ever get the unit again, rather than use the 10 attack on him. With Frontline units its always good to make your opponents decision of whether or not to target the unit difficult.

His 5 green cost can also be a big drawback if there’s no other good uses for green in the set. It means you can’t rush conduits to get him early without serious long term econ issues. There are definitely random set units that could really impact your timing decision on how green to go with this guy! He also requires a single blue, this prevents you from just rushing conduits without at least having a way to get 1 blue.

In terms of countering Thunderhead, you can take advantage of an opponent over committing to him by having 10 attack ready to abuse his Frontline, or having an efficient way to simply absorb the 5 attack while building up some good offense during those 3 turns.

Let’s look at how Thunderhead might work with some other random units, especially units that can take advantage of heavy conduit commitment.

Unit synergies with Thunderhead

Synthesizer

Synthesizer could help with rushing green and providing some blue defensive flexibility. Unfortunately it still costs 1 blue to make it in the first place so you can’t just use this to skip building a blastforge, but this can work as a bonus 2 blastforges for flexibility with lots of conduits.

Thorium Dynamo

Always a fun econ unit in general, this one works even stronger in green sets. It has some serious synergy with Thunderhead in that it requires no tech to get it in play, generates green, and gives you a great sink for the excess green into gold later.

Xaetron

Another good sink for your excess green. Xaetron provides some flexible “exhaust like” attack boosts as well as being a useful prompt defender. Having him around with your Thunderhead can make your opponents attack choices a little more difficult, especially when you can provide a big burst of 5 more attack.

Fission Turret

A cheap early attacker for when you can get some early conduit going, forcing your opponent on the defensive while you build up green.

Cluster Bolt

Combined with heavy conduit play and Thunderhead, this can make for a pretty deadly rush! This is arguably the best green sink in the game.

Gauss Charge

Another great green sink, providing some flexibility to really pump up the attacks of Thunderhead for a big burst, but obviously not as cost efficient as Cluster Bolt.

Barrier

This will not only act as a nice green sink after you build Thunderhead, it can also provide great prompt defensive granularity without needing to pop drones into forcefields.

Gauss Fab can act as a nice followup for your Thunderhead to get constant attack building up while they are busy dealing with the burst damage.

Venge Cannon

Venge Cannon can take advantage of the excess green to put even more burst pressure on the opponent along with Thunderhead.

Tantalum Ray

Ray works similar to Venge Cannon, but is noticeably weaker, and a bit cheaper. While weaker, you can still take advantage of it’s supply along with your excess green to backup Thunderhead with some burst and long term pressure.

Mahar Rectifier

Mahar works as a good pure green flexible attacker to back Thunderhead up and potentially soak some damage if they do take advantage of the Frontline.

Asteri Cannon

A bit pricey, but can provide some additional pressure and prompt defense for green heavy.

Zemora Voidbringer

Zemora is another heavy hitting legendary that could provide some serious pressure with your excess green. If you can have this bad boy building and ready by the time Thunderhead dies, you could really put some heavy hurt on while also helping your econ to compensate for rushing green.